Rangers coach John Tortorella was seen barking at DeBoer before the drop of the puck over the line he put out to start the game and DeBoer didn’t care very much for that at all. Tom Gulitti of Fire & Ice gets the rant from DeBoer over fight night at the Garden.

“I guess in John’s world you can come into our building and start your tough guys, but we can’t do the same in here,” DeBoer said. “He’s either got short-term memory loss or he’s a hypocrite. So it’s one of the other.”

What he’s referring to is the Devils-Rangers game in New Jersey on December 20 that saw an eerily similar starting five that the Rangers put out to start last night’s game to counter the Devils’ big boy unit.

Last night the Devils put out a line of Eric Boulton, Ryan Carter, and Cam Janssen to start the game, something that Tortorella didn’t much care for. He countered by sending out Mike Rupp, Brandon Prust, and Brandon Dubinsky. On the opening faceoff, Dubinsky stepped out and let tough guy defenseman Stu Bickel take his place. Giddy up!

For what it’s worth, Tortorella wouldn’t bite on commenting on last night’s fisticuffs or on what DeBoer had to say.

Here’s what Rangers head coach John Tortorella had to say about maligned forward Brandon Dubinsky prior to tonight’s game against Tampa Bay:

The penalty in question was a two-minute unsportsmanlike call Dubinsky received late in the first period of Thursday’s 3-2 win over Carolina. After some pushing and shoving around the Rangers net, Dubinsky grabbed a ‘Canes stick and hurled it against the glass, which led to Carolina scoring on the ensuing PP…and Tortorella benching Dubinsky for the remainder of the contest.

“I thought it was quite honestly a ridiculous penalty,” Tortorella told the New York Daily News. “At a time of the season when you’ve got 20 games left, that we need to be working on other things as far as details than that nonsense.”

Tortorella then confirmed that, if the Rangers lineup wasn’t depleted by injury (captain Ryan Callahan is out with a bruised foot), Dubinsky would’ve been a healthy scratch.

All told, it’s been a rough year for the 25-year-old. After posting a career-high in goals last season (24) and inking a four-year contract, $16.8 million deal in the summer, much was expected of Dubinsky heading into 2011-12. But he got off to an awful start — one goal over his first 31 games — and had his name thrown around incessantly in the Rick Nash trade rumors.

Just when John Tortorella thought he was out of marquee NHL events, they pull him back in.

The Rangers bench boss clinched one of the 2012 All-Star Game coaching gigs by virtue of New York’s overtime win against Florida last night. That guaranteed New York a higher winning percentage than Philadelphia by the Jan. 9 deadline — while the Rangers could still be caught by the Bruins, head coach Claude Julien was already on his way to the ASG by winning the Stanley Cup last season.

So, Torts is in for one of the league’s premier festivities.

This should prove sufficiently awkward given what transpired at the Winter Classic. There, Torts used another of the NHL’s largest stages to call the refereeing “disgusting” and insinuate the officials and NBC were in cahoots to send the game to overtime, which totally wasn’t true. (*tugs collar awkwardly*)

That cost Torts $30,000 in fines and a public apology, so my guess is we won’t hear him railing against fan voting or the fantasy draft format in Ottawa. ‘Cause hey, nobody wants to taint the All-Star Game with their mouth.

[PHT Notes: The race for the spot next to Torts on an all-star bench is still up for grabs. Five Western Conference coaches — Alain Vigneault, Joel Quenneville, Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock and Mike Babcock — are still in the mix.]

“There is no acceptable explanation or excuse for commentary challenging the integrity of the League, its officials or its broadcast partners,” Campbell said. “People can disagree with calls by officials on the ice, but even in instances of the utmost frustration there is no justification for speaking as inappropriately and irresponsibly as Mr. Tortorella did.”

Even after seeing his team shutout the rival Islanders, Rangers coach John Tortorella can take exception with something.

This time around, Tortorella had choice words for the folks keeping stats during last night’s game. Rangers forward Brian Boyle was credited with just one blocked shot in the game after absorbing more rubber than Henrik Lundqvist did in pitching a shutout.

“The league stats are ridiculous. Brian Boyle probably blocked four or five shots, he’s down for one. They shouldn’t even give us those sheets,” Tortorella said.

Both Boyle and Anton Stralman shined during a second period flurry that saw the Islanders threaten to score but come up empty thanks to their efforts. Even worse still, you can’t even blame the lack of stats on it being a homer scorekeeper as the game was at Madison Square Garden.

If you’re carrying a pen and a clipboard around John Tortorella these days, we’d suggest treading very lightly until this passes.